Zhuge Liang`S Political Strategy As Represented in Luo Guanzhong`S Sam Kok

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Zhuge Liang`S Political Strategy As Represented in Luo Guanzhong`S Sam Kok ZHUGE LIANG`S POLITICAL STRATEGY AS REPRESENTED IN LUO GUANZHONG`S SAM KOK. A FINAL PROJECT submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra in English by YOHAN FEBRIYANTO KUSUMO 2211410039 ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS SEMARANG STATE UNIVERSITY 2017 ii iii MOTTO AND DEDICATION A leader isn`t afraid when his people doesn`t know him but afraid when he doesn`t know his people ( Liu Bei) This final project is dedicated to my my worry-wart and caring family. Well, its finally done right? So they can stop worry about it. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to God the almighty for the blessing and ease given to me in completing this final project. My deepest gratitude goes as well to my beloved parents for their untiring affection, supports and continues prayer. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my first and only advisor BAMBANG PURWANTO, S.S., M.Hum for giving me continues guidance as well as motivation and correction during the writing of this final project. I also would like to thank Dr. Rudi Hartono, S.S., M.Pd. as Head of English Department and to all lecturers of the English department for the knowledge and the patience in guiding and teach me in my study. Finally I thank to all people around me that I cannot mention one by one for their supports and help while this final project was being written. I realize that a lot of shortcomings may be found in this final project. Therefore, suggestions and criticisms are always needed for betterment. I hope this final project will be useful for the readers. May God bless us and I hope everything we have passed through will us to reach everything we wish. Writer v ABSTRACT Febriyanto, Y. 2017. ZHUGE LIANG, THE POLITICAL STRATEGY AS REPRESENTED IN GUANZHONG SAM KOK . Final Project. English Literature. Faculty of Languages and Arts. Semarang State University. First Advisor: BAMBANG PURWANTO, S.S., M.Hum. Keywords : Political Strategy, Luo Guanzhong, Sam Kok (Romance of The Three Kingdoms). Sam Kok or later would be known as Romance of The Three Kingdoms was a famous novel created by Luo Guanzhong based on turmoil era in China. I wanted to focus on the character of Zhuge Liang ( Kong Ming), one of the famous strategist and military leader of Shu. This paper was directed to answer two basic questions about the problems. They were first, How Zhuge Liang`s political strategy is represented in Luo Guanzhong`s Sam Kok; second, How Zhuge Liang' s finding for support environment in creating political strategy is represented in Luo Guanzhong‟s Sam Kok. The theory used in this paper was taken from the book entitled Teori Kesusastraan by Wellek and Warren (2001). His theory about the literature was used to analyze the data source. I also applied the other theories that are considered relevant to the topic of discussion in this paper. There were some steps done in collecting data after mastering the theories. The method that I used in collecting the data was library research. When the data were collected and identified, the data were rewritten and they were classified according to their types. Finally, the data were analyzed descriptively using the theory of literature. Zhuge Liang`s political strategy was represented in his battle of Red Cliff and his 5 military campaigns to the north. He pesuaded Wu to clash against Wei so that he could led Shu taking West China. Zhuge Liang's forefathers were prominent servants of the state, but he was orphaned early in his youth. As a child, he was forced to flee his home (province of Shantung) during the slaughter of 400,000 civilians by Cao Cao, the powerful warlord of the Wei state. The origin of his knowledgebase in "science, statecraft, and art" is unknown to many. It has been said that much of his learning was through his own process of researching and self-teaching. Other stories have Zhuge Liang learning from Pang De Gong (a famous educator-thinker of that era). Zhuge Liang advises Liu Bei to ally with Wu and retake the west China from Liu Zhang. The West China is a hard to tranverse area so it makes that place easely defended places. By taking it. It gives Liu Bei enough land and man power to oppose the two other kingdoms and creating the three kingdoms formation. Zhuge vi Liang always use environment to his benefit. In battle of Chibi for example, When newly trained naval army of Cao Cao in total of one million strong is defeated by tens of thousands strong army of Wu and Shu. Zhuge Liang advise Pang Tong to spy Cao Cao and advise him to tie the ships with chains so that the armies can walk on the board easily and not getting sea-sick. Then Zhuge Liamg calls wind and use fire tactic to obliterate Cao Cao armies. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS APPROVAL .......................................................................................................... ii PERNYATAAN .................................................................................................... iii MOTTO AND DEDICATION ............................................................................ iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................... v ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... viii LIST OF APPENDICES ...................................................................................... x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION.................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of the Study ........................................................................... 1 1.2 Reasons for Choosing the Topic ................................................................ 2 1.3 Statement of the Problems ......................................................................... 3 1.4 Objectives of the Study .............................................................................. 3 1.5 Significance of the Study ........................................................................... 3 1.6 Outline of the Report ................................................................................. 4 II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ............................................ 6 2.1 Review of Previous Studies ....................................................................... 6 2.2 Theoretical Review .................................................................................... 7 2.2.1 Extrinsic Element ....................................................................................... 7 2.2.2 Sociology of Literature .............................................................................. 8 2.3 Political Strategy ........................................................................................ 9 2.3.1 The Concept of Political ............................................................................ 9 viii 2.4 Leadership ................................................................................................ 12 2.4.1 Definition of Leadership .......................................................................... 12 2.5 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................ 14 2.4 Diagram of The Analysis ......................................................................... 16 III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................... 17 3.1 Research Design....................................................................................... 17 3.2 Research Instrument................................................................................. 18 3.3 Data Collection ........................................................................................ 18 3.4 Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 20 IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................ 20 4.1 Zhuge Liang`s political strategy as represented in Luo Guanzhong`s Sam Kok .......................................................................................................... 20 4.2 The Environment Supports The Creation of Political Strategy as Represented in Luo Guanzhong‟s Sam Kok ........................................... 27 4.3 The Background of The Society ............................................................. 35 V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ............................................. 38 5.1 Conclusions .............................................................................................. 38 5.2 Suggestions .............................................................................................. 40 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................ 42 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................... 44 ix LIST OF APPENDICES 1. Summary of The Novel..............................................................................45 x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 contained introduction of the study that consisted of background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic, research problems, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and outline of the research report. The further explanation was presented in the subchapters below. 1.1. Background of The Study Language is a system
Recommended publications
  • The Textiles of the Han Dynasty & Their Relationship with Society
    The Textiles of the Han Dynasty & Their Relationship with Society Heather Langford Theses submitted for the degree of Master of Arts Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Centre of Asian Studies University of Adelaide May 2009 ii Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the research requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Centre of Asian Studies School of Humanities and Social Sciences Adelaide University 2009 iii Table of Contents 1. Introduction.........................................................................................1 1.1. Literature Review..............................................................................13 1.2. Chapter summary ..............................................................................17 1.3. Conclusion ........................................................................................19 2. Background .......................................................................................20 2.1. Pre Han History.................................................................................20 2.2. Qin Dynasty ......................................................................................24 2.3. The Han Dynasty...............................................................................25 2.3.1. Trade with the West............................................................................. 30 2.4. Conclusion ........................................................................................32 3. Textiles and Technology....................................................................33
    [Show full text]
  • Ps TOILETRY CASE SETS ACROSS LIFE and DEATH in EARLY CHINA (5 C. BCE-3 C. CE) by Sheri A. Lullo BA, University of Chicago
    TOILETRY CASE SETS ACROSS LIFE AND DEATH IN EARLY CHINA (5th c. BCE-3rd c. CE) by Sheri A. Lullo BA, University of Chicago, 1999 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts & Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 Ps UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS & SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Sheri A. Lullo It was defended on October 9, 2009 and approved by Anthony Barbieri-Low, Associate Professor, History Dept., UC Santa Barbara Karen M. Gerhart, Professor, History of Art and Architecture Bryan K. Hanks, Associate Professor, Anthropology Anne Weis, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture Dissertation Advisor: Katheryn M. Linduff, Professor, History of Art and Architecture ii Copyright © by Sheri A. Lullo 2009 iii TOILETRY CASE SETS ACROSS LIFE AND DEATH IN EARLY CHINA (5th c. BCE-3rd c. CE) Sheri A. Lullo, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2009 This dissertation is an exploration of the cultural biography of toiletry case sets in early China. It traces the multiple significances that toiletry items accrued as they moved from contexts of everyday life to those of ritualized death, and focuses on the Late Warring States Period (5th c. BCE) through the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), when they first appeared in burials. Toiletry case sets are painted or inlaid lacquered boxes that were filled with a variety of tools for beautification, including combs, mirrors, cosmetic substances, tweezers, hairpins and a selection of personal items. Often overlooked as ordinary, non-ritual items placed in burials to comfort the deceased, these sets have received little scholarly attention beyond what they reveal about innovations in lacquer technologies.
    [Show full text]
  • Imagining a Universal Empire: a Study of the Illustrations of the Tributary States of the Myriad Regions Attributed to Li Gonglin
    Journal of chinese humanities 5 (2019) 124-148 brill.com/joch Imagining a Universal Empire: a Study of the Illustrations of the Tributary States of the Myriad Regions Attributed to Li Gonglin Ge Zhaoguang 葛兆光 Professor of History, Fudan University, China [email protected] Abstract This article is not concerned with the history of aesthetics but, rather, is an exercise in intellectual history. “Illustrations of Tributary States” [Zhigong tu 職貢圖] as a type of art reveals a Chinese tradition of artistic representations of foreign emissaries paying tribute at the imperial court. This tradition is usually seen as going back to the “Illustrations of Tributary States,” painted by Emperor Yuan in the Liang dynasty 梁元帝 [r. 552-554] in the first half of the sixth century. This series of paintings not only had a lasting influence on aesthetic history but also gave rise to a highly distinctive intellectual tradition in the development of Chinese thought: images of foreign emis- saries were used to convey the Celestial Empire’s sense of pride and self-confidence, with representations of strange customs from foreign countries serving as a foil for the image of China as a radiant universal empire at the center of the world. The tra- dition of “Illustrations of Tributary States” was still very much alive during the time of the Song dynasty [960-1279], when China had to compete with equally powerful neighboring states, the empire’s territory had been significantly diminished, and the Chinese population had become ethnically more homogeneous. In this article, the “Illustrations of the Tributary States of the Myriad Regions” [Wanfang zhigong tu 萬方職貢圖] attributed to Li Gonglin 李公麟 [ca.
    [Show full text]
  • The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This Is Episode 53. Last
    Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 53. Last time, Sun Quan’s adviser Lu Su had brought Zhuge Liang to the Southlands to meet with his master in hopes of forming an alliance between Liu Bei and the Southlands to resist Cao Cao. But when Lu Su went to see Sun Quan, he found the other advisers all telling Sun Quan that Cao Cao was too strong and that it was in everyone’s best interest to surrender. Sun Quan was nonplussed by this, and while he was taking a bathroom break, Lu Su told him that while everyone else could surrender to Cao Cao, Sun Quan alone could not. “For the likes of me,” Lu Su said, “surrender means being sent back to my hometown. Eventually, I can work my way back into high office. But if you surrender, you would not be able to go home. Your rank would be no more than a marquis. You would have but one carriage, one horse, and a few servants. You would be no one’s lord. Everyone else was just trying to save themselves. You must not listen to them. It’s time to make a master plan for yourself.” Now, Lu Su’s analysis is pretty spot on if you think about it. Look at what happened when Cao Cao took over Jing Province. All the officials and officers who surrendered made out pretty well with nice ranks and titles. But their former lord, Liu Cong (2), met an ignoble end. Sun Quan himself had just been pressed by his own advisers to surrender, and those advisers were no doubt looking out for themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This Is Episode 48. Last
    Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 48. Last time, Sun Quan and the troops of the Southlands had just defeated and killed Huang (2) Zu (3), a close friend and top commander of Liu Biao, the imperial protector of Jing (1) Province. Sun Quan had also captured the key city of Jiangxia (1,4), which Huang Zu was defending. Upon receiving Huang Zu’s head, Sun Quan ordered that it be placed in a wooden box and taken back to the Southlands to be placed as an offering at the altar of his father, who had been killed in battle against Liu Biao years earlier. He then rewarded his troops handsomely, promoted Gan Ning, the man who defected from Huang Zu and then killed him in battle, to district commander, and began discussion of whether to leave troops to garrison the newly conquered city. His adviser Zhang Zhao (1), however, said, “A lone city so far from our territory is impossible to hold. We should return to the Southlands. When Liu Biao finds out we have killed Huang Zu, he will surely come looking for revenge. We should rest our troops while he overextends his. This will guarantee victory. We can then attack him as he falls back and take Jing Province.” Sun Quan took this advice and abandoned his new conquest and returned home. But there was still the matter of Su (1) Fei (1), the enemy general he had captured. This Su Fei was friends with Gan Ning and was actually the one who helped him defect to Sun Quan.
    [Show full text]
  • The Congregation of Heroes: a Skyrim Representation
    DePauw University Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University Student research Student Work 4-2017 The onC gregation of Heroes: A Skyrim Representation Richard Smith DePauw University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearch Part of the Chinese Studies Commons, and the Computer Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Richard, "The onC gregation of Heroes: A Skyrim Representation" (2017). Student research. 77. http://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearch/77 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student research by an authorized administrator of Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Congregation of Heroes: A Skyrim Representation Richard Smith Honor Scholar Program Senior Project 2017 Sponsor: Dr. Dave Berque First Reader: Dr. Sherry Mou Second Reader: Dr. Harry Brown 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 A Brief History 4 The Congregation of Heroes 6 Thesis Project 8 Skyrim and the Creation Kit 9 The Creation Process 10 Creative Decisions for the First Iteration 14 Technical Details for the First Iteration 18 The User Study 20 The Second Iteration 23 The Ethics of Translation 26 Conclusion 28 Acknowledgements 30 Works Cited 31 2 3 A Brief History The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a novel detailing the events during the final years ​ of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. This time period, approximately 169 AD to 280 AD (Luo), was notable for the constant power struggles between the three kingdoms in China at the time.
    [Show full text]
  • The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This Is Episode 3. Before
    Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 3. Before we pick up where we left off, I have a quick programming note for those of you who haven’t seen it on the website yet. I have decided to scale back the length of the episodes. Each of the first two episodes came in at nearly 40 minutes, and it felt long when I was writing them, recording them, editing them, and listening to them. When I am talking from a script for a long time, I have a tendency to fall back into reading rather than talking, and I want to avoid that. So I am going to try to keep future episodes to between 25 and 30 minutes. I think that will make the episodes easier for me to produce and result in a better product for you. It does mean that it will take longer to get through the whole novel, but hey, when your project starts out being at least a three-year commitment, what’s a few more months? So anyway, back to the story. At the end of the last episode, we were knee-deep in palace intrigue as a power struggle had broken out at the very top of the empire. Emperor Ling had just died. He had two sons, and both them were just kids at this point. The eunuchs were planning to make one son, prince Liu Xie (2), the heir, but the regent marshall, He Jin, the brother of the empress, beat them to the punch and declared her son, prince Liu Bian (4), the new emperor.
    [Show full text]
  • Cao Pi (Pages 5-6) ​ 5
    JCC: Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義 Cao Cao Dossier 曹操 Crisis Director: Matthew Owens, Charles Miller Email: [email protected], [email protected] ​ ​ ​ Chair: Harjot Singh Email: [email protected] ​ Table of Contents: 1. Front Page (Page 1) 2. Table of Contents (Page 2) 3. Introduction to the Cao Cao Dossier (Pages 3-4) 4. Cao Pi (Pages 5-6) ​ 5. Cao Zhang (Pages 7-8) ​ 6. Cao Zhi (Pages 9-10) ​ 7. Lady Bian (Page 11) ​ 8. Emperor Xian of Han (Pages 12-13) ​ 9. Empress Fu Shou (Pages 14-15) ​ 10. Cao Ren (Pages 16-17) ​ 11. Cao Hong (Pages 18-19) ​ 12. Xun Yu (Pages 20-21) ​ 13. Sima Yi (Pages 22-23) ​ 14. Zhang Liao (Pages 24-25) ​ 15. Xiahou Yuan (Pages 26-27) ​ 16. Xiahou Dun (Pages 28-29) ​ 17. Yue Jin (Pages 30-31) ​ 18. Dong Zhao (Pages 32-33) ​ 19. Xu Huang (Pages 34-35) ​ 20. Cheng Yu (Pages 36-37) ​ 21. Cai Yan (Page 38) ​ 22. Han Ji (Pages 39-40) ​ 23. Su Ze (Pages 41-42) ​ 24. Works Cited (Pages 43-) Introduction to the Cao Cao Dossier: ​ Most characters within the Court of Cao Cao are either generals, strategists, administrators, or family members. ● Generals lead troops on the battlefield by both developing successful battlefield tactics and using their martial prowess with skills including swordsmanship and archery to duel opposing generals and officers in single combat. They also manage their armies- comprising of troops infantrymen who fight on foot, cavalrymen who fight on horseback, charioteers who fight using horse-drawn chariots, artillerymen who use long-ranged artillery, and sailors and marines who fight using wooden ships- through actions such as recruitment, collection of food and supplies, and training exercises to ensure that their soldiers are well-trained, well-fed, well-armed, and well-supplied.
    [Show full text]
  • The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This Is Episode 52
    Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 52. Previously, we left off with one of the most memorable sequences in the novel, in which Zhao Yun rescued Liu Bei’s infant son, A Dou (1,3), and fought his way through swarms of Cao Cao’s troops to escape. But no sooner had he left the bulk of Cao Cao’s army behind did he run into two more detachments of enemy soldiers, led by two lieutenants under the command of Cao Cao’s general Xiahou Dun. These two guys were brothers. One wielded a battle axe, while the other used a halberd, and they were shouting for Zhao Yun to surrender. Zhao Yun, of course, paid no heed to their words and greeted them with his spear. Within three bouts, the elder brother, the axe-wielder, was stabbed off his horse. Zhao Yun took the opening and ran. The younger brother, however, gave chase. As he closed in, the tip of his halberd flashed around Zhao Yun’s back. But Zhao Yun suddenly turned around, and the two were face to face right next to each other. Wielding his spear in his left hand, Zhao Yun blocked the halberd. At the same time, his right hand pulled out the prized sword that he had taken from Cao Cao’s sword-bearer earlier in the day. Where the sword landed, half of his opponent’s head and helmet went flying off. Seeing their leaders killed, the enemy soldiers scattered, and Zhao Yun once again fled toward Changban (2,3) Bridge.
    [Show full text]
  • 三國演義 Court of Liu Bei 劉備法院
    JCC: Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義 Court of Liu Bei 劉備法院 Crisis Directors: Matthew Owens, Charles Miller Emails: [email protected], [email protected] ​ ​ ​ Chair: Isis Mosqueda Email: [email protected] ​ Single-Delegate: Maximum 20 Positions Table of Contents: 1. Title Page (Page 1) 2. Table of Contents (Page 2) 3. Chair Introduction Page (Page 3) 4. Crisis Director Introduction Pages (Pages 4-5) 5. Intro to JCC: Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Pages 6-9) 6. Intro to Liu Bei (Pages 10-11) 7. Topic History: Jing Province (Pages 12-14) 8. Perspective (Pages 15-16) 9. Current Situation (Pages 17-19) 10. Maps of the Middle Kingdom / China (Pages 20-21) 11. Liu Bei’s Domain Statistics (Page 22) 12. Guiding Questions (Pages 22-23) 13. Resources for Further Research (Page 23) 14. Works Cited (Pages 24-) Dear delegates, I am honored to welcome you all to the Twenty Ninth Mid-Atlantic Simulation of the United Nations Conference, and I am pleased to welcome you to JCC: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Everyone at MASUN XXIX have been working hard to ensure that this committee and this conference will be successful for you, and we will continue to do so all weekend. My name is Isis Mosqueda and I am recent George Mason Alumna. I am also a former GMU Model United Nations president, treasurer and member, as well as a former MASUN Director General. I graduated last May with a B.A. in Government and International politics with a minor in Legal Studies. I am currently an academic intern for the Smithsonian Institution, working for the National Air and Space Museum’s Education Department, and a substitute teacher for Loudoun County Public Schools.
    [Show full text]
  • Macbeth's and ZHUGE Liang's Fate Explained Through I Ching
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 497 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2020) Macbeth’s and ZHUGE Liang’s Fate Explained Through I Ching Liguo LOU1a 1Department of General Education, Changzhou Institute of Engineering Technology, Changzhou, Jiangsu 213164, China a [email protected] ABSTRACT I Ching, also translated as Yijing or The Changes, is a work on the "law of change" that is universally applicable to the natural world and human society. It originated from China but belongs to all the human kind. It is a treasure to the world civilization and is still valuable to all walks of life. The philosophy of I Ching’s Kun Hexagram is used to analyze the fate of two literary characters: Macbeth and ZHUGE Liang. Macbeth’s collapse of nice fame and good fortune lies in his dashing out of the way of a subordinate in his “top-yin” period; by contrast, ZHUGE Liang’s integrity and prosperity lies in his humility from his “first-yin” period to the “top-yin” period. Keywords: I Ching, Macbeth, ZHUGE Liang, the Kun Hexagram opposite to the Qian Hexagram. Its attribute is “devotion”. 1. INTRODUCTION It signifies receptivity, submission, humility, faithfullness. Contrary to the Qian Hexagram, the Kun Hexagram is Can I Ching (The Law of Chang) be used to predict the fate made up of six yin lines. From the bottom to the top, they and fortune of literary figures? Of course not. Literary are called: the 1st yin (“yin” is also called “six”), the 2nd yin, figures are different from real-life figures in that their fates the 3rd yin, the 4th yin, the 5th yin, and the top yin.
    [Show full text]
  • Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This Is a Supplemental Episode. Alright, So This Is Another Big One, As We
    Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. Alright, so this is another big one, as we bid farewell to the novel’s main protagonist, Liu Bei. In the novel, he is portrayed as the ideal Confucian ruler, extolled for his virtue, compassion, kindness, and honor, as well as his eagerness for seeking out men of talent. How much of that is actually true? Well, we’ll see. But bear in mind that even the source material we have about Liu Bei should be considered heavily biased, since the main historical source we have, the Records of the Three Kingdoms, was written by a guy who had served in the court of the kingdom that Liu Bei founded, which no doubt colored his view of the man. Given Liu Bei’s eventual status as the emperor of a kingdom, there were, unsurprisingly, very extensive records about his life and career, and what’s laid out in the novel In terms of the whens, wheres, and whats of Liu Bei’s life pretty much corresponds with real-life events. Because of that, I’m not going to do a straight rehash of his life since that alone would take two full episodes. Seriously, I had to rewrite this episode three times to make it a manageable length, which is why it’s being released a month later than I anticipated. So instead, I’m going to pick and choose from the notable stories about Liu Bei from the novel and talk about which ones were real and which ones were pure fiction.
    [Show full text]